Sign in Poland with Mickey Mouse and Nazis protested

Advertisements for an art exhibit in Poland is stirring up controversy by combining images of Mickey Mouse and a Nazi flag, complete with swastika, for an exhibit that takes on “The ‘horrors’ of the American Lifestyle.”

The poster has been vandalized twice since it first went up, and on Tuesday was no longer stretched across a building in the city center. Despite the uproar, gallery director Maria Czarnecka said she plans to put it back up.

“Art should be provocative and controversial,” she told The Associated Press, insisting that the poster does not seek to propagate Nazism but instead wants to explore “symbols and how they work.”

“The Mickey Mouse head and swastika are on the same level — they don’t mean anything and they are both part of the globalized world,” Czarnecka said.

I certainly disagree that those symbols don’t mean anything. But I must agree that the artist has the right to make their own art no matter how tasteless. The public also has the right not to attend the exhibit if they so choose, which might be the result of making a bad name for yourself.

Actually in this case I don’t think the Artist has the right to use the symbols in that matter. First Mickey is copyrighted by Disney and they can control how it is used. Second it is being use in a way to incite people.